Cinco de Mayo: a holiday known for oversized sombreros, mouth-wateringly delicious tacos, one too many margaritas and racism.
Every fifth of May, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans prepare for yet another day of cultural appropriation, racist jokes and perhaps a tweet or two from President Donald Trump about his long-promised border wall.
As a fourth-generation Mexican-American, I’m hoping 2017 is the year we, as a community, put an end to the appropriation and degradation of an entire culture. This Cinco de Mayo, know the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation in order to make this “holiday” enjoyable for everyone.
Before you go out and drink as many Coronas as you can, try to get a basic knowledge of what you’re “celebrating.” Frequently confused with Mexico’s independence day, which is Sept. 16, Cinco de Mayo commemorates an unforeseen victory by the Mexican army against the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Puebla is located in east-central Mexico and is one of the 31 states that makes up the country.
And, while Cinco de Mayo in America is widely interpreted as a celebration of Mexican culture, the lack of appreciation for Mexican heritage, the historical significance of the event itself, and the influx of racial stereotypes has transformed the holiday into an almost unbearable occasion for anyone of Mexican descent.
Rather than subjugate Mexicans and Mexican Americans to yet another year of cultural appropriation and lack of appreciation, read up on ways you can help celebrate our beautiful heritage — and ways to help avoid further degradation of an entire culture. Read more (Opinion)
In a sky star-pricked and brooding she watched the sailing shift of the comet searing towards the soil below.
Eyes blessed with the sharpness of a predator traced it’s descent until the limbs were visible within the flames, until the agony was tangible through the fall.
The wings would be charred black by the inferno of being born into the middle lands. It would take many more of their elegant curves to have the same potency as their pearl counterparts but no matter. After 100 years of waiting for the fall of a star one could not be picky about the details.
“Young. And with a heart full of darkness I fear.” Her voice broke the stillness of their souls poised to the trajectory of the heavenly body ripping through the navy sheet of the clouds.
“At least we will not need to feel guilt for slaying him to take his marrow then.” Her sister’s smile graced her face like a blood stain in the dimness and Hinata breathed in hard.
Twirling the glaive expertly above her head to cut the air and disperse the glowing dragonmoths intent on their blood she sighed, tucking the heavy weapon under her arm, close to her side next to heart.
“Ready to hunt?” Hanabi stood, gathering with slow careful breaths the energy from the earth below.
Behind her the fallen star exploded into being in sparks of crimson and indigo, trembling the long lemon grass and making the smell of earth and citrus rise around them.
Swallowing hard Hinata nodded, poised to release the coil of tension in her body. Still smiling her sister unsheathed the elbow blades at either hip, the metal settling to her forearms in a comfortable anticipatory clink.
“For our glory.” Hanabi prayed.
“And those of the Hawk Eyed Blood.” Hinata countered.
With a breath they shot into the darkness of the swaying trees where the smoldering angel had fallen, their bodies cutting through the grass- raptors aimed to slaughter.
look…………….. write as much shitty fic as you want. nobody can stop you. you’re learning constantly and it’s better to write hackneyed implausible ridiculousness than it is to not write at all out of fear of fucking up. you’re good
There was an experiment a professor did. I think it was pottery students. He did an experiment of “quality” vs “quantity”. One half of the class he told; you have to make as many pots as possible. Good pots, bad pots, shitty pots, whatever. The more pots you make, the higher your grade.
The other half of the class were told, “you can make only one pot”. But that pot had to be perfect. The quality had to be high; the highest quality pot would get the best mark.
But when it came to the grading, they noticed something weird.
All the best quality pots were in the ‘quantity’ group.
The guys who were literally churning out pots, trying to make as many as possible, not concentrating on the quality. But every pot they made, made them better at making pots. By the end of the month (I think it was a month) – they had some pretty awesome pots coming out, because they enjoying finding all the ways and all the things they could do to make all their pots. Where as the ‘quality’ guys had spent their time reading up on pots, and technique, and researching and planning; which was all great but they’d had no further practice at actually making pots.
The best way to get really good at something, the only way to be really good at something, is to make lots of shitty attempts at that thing several of which will fail. If all you create are perfect things then you won’t improve, because how can you improve on perfect?
tl:dr MAKE YOUR SHITTY POTS.
god damn. I keep seeing things like this and kicking myself.
Ink Child Writing 